Category Archives: Opiates

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Anesthesiologists – the doctors who keep patients alive during surgery, who essentially take over our breathing – make up just three per cent of all doctors, but account for 20 to 30 per cent of drug-addicted MDs. Experts say anesthesiologists are overrepresented in addiction treatment programs by a ratio of three to one, compared with any other physician group, an occupational hazard that could pose catastrophic risks to their patients.

Their drugs of choice are most frequently fentanyl and sufentanil, opioids that are 100 and 1,000 times more potent than morphine. They “divert” a portion of the doses meant for their patients to themselves, slipping syringes into their pockets.

And later, alone in the bathroom or the call room, when the drug hits their own bloodstream, the relief, the sense that all is well in the world, the mild euphoria, is immediate.

200 Million People Worldwide Use Illegal Drugs, Study Says

An estimated 200 million people worldwide use illegal drugs, according to a new study. The health consequences of this use are wide-ranging, researchers report this week in The Lancet.

They include

overdose,

dependence,

violence or injury due to intoxication, as well as

heart disease,

mental disorders and

cirrhosis.

The Los Angeles Times reports that

125 to 203 million people use marijuana,

14 million to 56 million use amphetamines,

12 million to 21 million use opioids, and

14 million to 21 million use cocaine.

In addition, 11 million to 21 million inject drugs. An estimated 15 million to 39 million are considered problem drug users, the article notes.

Illegal drug use is highest in developed countries, the researchers found. They point out that many people who use illegal drugs take more than one drug.

The major adverse health effects of marijuana are dependence, and probably psychotic disorders and other mental disorders, the researchers conclude. They say that marijuana is unlikely to be deadly.

Drugs caused 2.1 million years of life lost in 2004, followed by alcohol, which caused a loss of 1.5 million years, according to the World Health Organization. Drug-related deaths tend to strike younger people, accounting for the higher number of years of life lost compared with other causes of death.

Small But Growing Number of Doctors Face Criminal Charges Over Prescription Drugs

As the number of fatal overdoses from prescription painkillers grows, so does the number of doctors who are facing criminal charges for overprescribing painkillers and other controlled medications, Reuters reports

The issue has gained attention in light of the upcoming trial of Michael Jackson’s doctor, Conrad Murray. Prosecutors have charged him with involuntary manslaughter, which could be punishable by two to four years in prison, for his role in the drug overdose death of the music star.

There have been an estimated 37 reported criminal cases against doctors between 2001 and 2011, according to Reuters. Most recent cases involved overprescribing painkillers and other controlled substances.

Many of these cases have been brought under the Controlled Substances Act, and similar state laws. In order to prove a doctor is guilty under the law, the prosecution must prove the physician knowingly and intentionally prescribed the drug outside “the usual course of professional practice” or not for a “legitimate medical purpose.”

Jackson’s doctor is not being charged with violating a controlled substances law because propofol, the anesthetic he is accused of giving to Jackson, is not a controlled substance. Instead, prosecutors say he breached the standard of care when he administered the drug to Jackson at home, and his gross negligence caused the singer’s death.

Diane Hoffmann, a law professor at the University of Maryland School of Law, notes doctors who treat patients with chronic pain are in a tough position, relying on their patients to tell them how much pain they are suffering from. “Doctors are not supposed to be law enforcement agents. They’re supposed to believe their patients,” she said.

An epidemic of prescription painkiller abuse has led to another growing problem — newborns exposed to the addictive drugs their mothers use.

At the Catholic Health System in Buffalo, which operates the state’s largest methadone clinic outside of New York City, physicians used to see one to three babies a month with symptoms of withdrawal from narcotic pain pills. Now, the number approaches 10 a month, said Dr. Paul Updike, director of chemical dependency at Sisters Hospital.

The number of cases has grown enough that the hospital network is reorganizing services to standardize the care of addicted moms-to-be and their newborns.

“We can’t control the influences on a child’s environment, but withdrawal is quite treatable. We can give a child a chance for a reasonable life,” said Updike.

Thousands of West Australians have become addicted to dangerous prescription drugs while waiting to see a doctor, but a lag in illicit drug use statistics has left the escalating problem largely undetected, a scathing parliamentary inquiry has found.

General practitioners are concerned that about 22,000 West Australians are now addicted to opioids such as morphine and oxycodone, prescribed to them to manage chronic pain while they waited up to 12 months to see a specialist, the Education and Health Standing Committee said in an interim report tabled in parliament yesterday.

“The misuse of prescription opioids has become a significant problem within Western Australia and the number of people misusing them is now at a similar level to the number consuming heroin,” the report says.

February 7, 2011. The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) issued a nationwide warning about the dangers of legal synthetic drugs often marketed as bath salts while various states moved to ban them, the Associated Press (AP) reported.

The powdered stimulants — sold online, in gas stations and drug paraphernalia stores as bath salts and plant food under names like "Ivory Wave" — are said to produce highs like cocaine, ecstasy, and methamphetamines. Active ingredients include 3,4-methylenedioxypyrovalerone (known as MPDV) and mephedrone. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not approved them for human consumption, but they have not been banned by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

White House drug czar Gil Kerlikowske said the so-called "bath salts" can cause "chest pains, increased blood pressure and heart rate, agitation, hallucinations, extreme paranoia and delusions," according to the AP. So far this year, 251 calls have been made about them to the American Association of Poison Control Centers, compared to 236 similar calls for all of last year.

"They pose a serious threat to the health and well-being of young people and anyone who uses them," said Kerlikowske.

Meanwhile, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., has introduced a bill that would put the chemicals on the federal list of controlled substances, Reuters reported Jan. 31.

"These so-called bath salts contain ingredients that are nothing more than legally sanctioned narcotics, and they are being sold cheaply to all comers, with no questions asked, at store counters around the country," Schumer said.

The European Union, Australia, Canada, Israel, as well as several states — Florida, Hawaii, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, New York, North Dakota, and West Virginia — have already banned the substances or are considering legislation to do so.

In West Virginia, lawmakers were also moving to ban any future variations of the synthetic drugs, according to the Herald-Dispatch Jan. 31.

"We’ve tried to use generic language to cover those situations where a knowledgeable person could change the formulation on new designer drugs. As such, with the wording, that will be covered under the code as well," Delegate Don Perdue (D-Wayne) explained.

"We may not be able to burst the balloon, but we can at least push on it and deflate it a little to the point where it’s less threatening," he said.

The DEA is reviewing data on abuse of the synthetic stimulants but does not currently have plans to ban them. Spokesman Rusty Payne recommended that people avoid the drugs.

"Just because something is not illegal does not mean it’s safe," he said.

LISBON, Portugal – These days, Casal Ventoso is an ordinary blue-collar community — mothers push baby strollers, men smoke outside cafes, buses chug up and down the cobbled main street.

Ten years ago, the Lisbon neighborhood was a hellhole, a “drug supermarket” where some 5,000 users lined up every day to buy heroin and sneak into a hillside honeycomb of derelict housing to shoot up. In dark, stinking corners, addicts — some with maggots squirming under track marks — staggered between the occasional corpse, scavenging used, bloody needles.

At that time, Portugal, like the junkies of Casal Ventoso, had hit rock bottom: An estimated 100,000 people — an astonishing 1 percent of its population — were addicted to illegal drugs. So, like anyone with little to lose, the Portuguese took a risky leap: They decriminalized the use of all drugs in a groundbreaking law in 2000.